Put your pipe where?

Somebody made the mistake of asking me what I thought about pipelines and oil the other day. My answer? “People just like something to bitch about, more then half of those opposed to building pipelines to move oil have no idea what they are bitching about.”

How can you possibly come to the conclusion that pipelines are bad for the environment when the alternative is moving it by truck, train, and barge? All of those other options burn diesel is mass quantities by the way. Is that better for the environment?

Yes, the crew is going to come in and dig a trench, they are going to connect chunks of pipe, and then they are going to refill the trench. Soon after, a reclamation team is going to come and ensure clean up is complete and plant some grass. Then there will be no more pipeline to look at.

The new age of technology brings computer monitoring to the pipe as well, meaning if there is a break or failure, the sensors will close valves and try and mitigate the situation. I will admit that similar systems have failed in the past, but every failure brings refined systems and policies. How many tanker trucks have hit the ditch spilling their load?

Today. Right Now. This entire planet relies on oil, gas, coal, etc. That is not going to change tomorrow, or possibly in your lifetime. I do believe that the world needs to shift its focus to renewable energy. I believe that is necessary to give our great grand kids a planetary fighting chance. But not today, we are not ready yet and we have not made the right plans to achieve that any time soon. The world leaders really should start making those long term plans…

Building the Keystone XL and Trans Mountain pipelines is essential to cleaning up the world and making this country a greener and cleaner place. Simply put, as I said above, the pipeline will eliminate the need to truck it or run it by rail.

I don’t recall much bitching about the pipes that bring water or natural gas to the protesters houses, nor the pipe that removes sewage from it… weird…